


happy is a diamond in the rough

by viridianquills



Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Healing, Post-Dressrosa, musings in the aftermath of everything you ever thought you wanted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21914065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianquills/pseuds/viridianquills
Summary: Defeating Doflamingo didn’t make him happy, but he didn’t expect it to.He hadn’t thought towantit to.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 1
Kudos: 48





	happy is a diamond in the rough

“Are you happy?” Luffy asks, suddenly, in that uncharacteristic seriousness of his.

It’s something Law has come to expect, something that’s earned his begrudging respect for the other Captain. Strength alone is nothing Law would ever bow to— tyrants and fools can be strong, and it earns them no favors— but Luffy isn’t as much of a fool as he seems to be. Not in  _ some  _ ways, at least.

So he allows the question to have the weight it's meant to have, and he considers it.

“No,” Law answers readily, easily, because he knows that much is true; he sleeps in fractured bits and holds too much hatred in his heart, he feels the weariness in his bones, too old for his age. No, he’s not happy, not here in the wreckage of this city, in the aftermath of what he’d devoted his life to achieving.

Defeating Doflamingo didn’t make him happy, but he didn’t expect it to. He hadn’t thought to  _ want  _ it to.

Luffy stares without nodding, without any sort of acknowledgement or response at all, and the fact that it’s the longest Law has ever heard the other boy be silent makes the corners of his lips turn towards a wry smile. Of course he can be patient, just not when you want him to be.

His bounty will go up. Both of theirs will, presumably. But the Marines won’t catch them, not here, at least. Luffy has aspirations that stretch wider than the seas themselves and Law, well. He has a promise to keep, and a crew to return to, as much as he’s surprised to still be alive.

It wasn’t martyrdom, not intentionally— he  _ won’t  _ throw away this life he was given— but the odds were never in their favor, and if he’d died for this, so be it.

_ So be it,  _ he had said, and nearly caused mutiny within his own crew. No mercy for anyone who makes Bepo cry, not even the Captain. The thought makes him scoff, but it’s a thought nonetheless. He has a crew to return to, and another task to complete, and then… who knows?

“I’m not happy,” Law shrugs. His body protests the movement as it protests everything at the moment, battered and broken as he is, yet breathing. Living. Like that's enough, for once. “But I could be, I think.”

Luffy smiles then, face breaking out in a wide grin as the serious atmosphere is gone just like that, swept up in the whirlwind of this boy. “That’s good enough! Hey, Torao, do you think they’re serving dinner yet?”

“It’s  _ one  _ in the afternoon.”

“...so no dinner?”

**Author's Note:**

> (luffy voice) so no head?


End file.
